Churchill’s ‘black dog’ was not depression, says historian

WINSTON CHURCHILL did not suffer from depression and his reference to the “black dog” has been misinterpreted for decades, according to a historian of the wartime leader.

Andrew Roberts said the phrase “black dog” had a different meaning at the beginning of the 20th century and did not refer to mental health.

“He could get down on occasion but I do not believe that he was a depressive,” Roberts said.

Churchill wrote to his wife, Clementine, in 1911 mentioning a friend’s wife who had been treated by a doctor for apparent depressive episodes. “I think this man might be useful to me – if my black dog returns,” he said. He also wrote to her in 1916 of “terrible and reasonless depressions.”

However, Roberts, whose new book is Churchill: Walking with Destiny, told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival: “It’s taken for granted in most of the books about him but he only mentioned his ‘black dog’ on one occasion, and the phrase at that time was used to explain the ill-tempered children.”

Anthony Storr, the psychiatrist, popularised the theory of Churchill battling depression in a 1980 book entitled Churchill’s Black Dog, Kafka’s Mice and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind.